The connecting members used at the present time are generally constituted by added pieces, called inserts, which are integrated in the panel when it is manufactured. Although very widely adopted by the manufacturers, such products nonetheless present drawbacks.
Firstly, it is necessary, on the one hand previously to define the location of each insert to be added in the panel and, on the other hand, to design specific tools for positioning said inserts in order to maintain them in place during manufacture of the panel, which, due to the study and manufacture of said tools, involves increased production costs of the panels and, due to the pre-established location of the inserts, the impossibility of changing their location in the panel.
Furthermore, these inserts, added during actual manufacture of the panel which is effected by hot gluing the plates on the honeycomb structure, are also hot-glued with the aid of an appropriate adhesive on the walls of the bores made in the plates and the structure of the panel Consequently, when the inserts present, in particular, a considerable length corresponding substantially to that of the thickness of the panel and when the nature of the materials used for the insert, the plates and the honeycomb structure is different, problems of differential expansion appear between the materials used, since each presents its own coefficient of thermal expansion.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by providing a member for connecting panels, particularly multi-layer ones, whose design avoids the use of specific tools for fitting it to a panel, whilst eliminating the problems inherent to the differences of thermal expansion of the materials, and which presents a good mechanical resistance, a low mass, and reduced manufacturing and installation costs.